Hey Grads! Free Gift For You! Josh Shipp’s 2010 Graduation Rap

June 5, 2010 As high schools pour out cap-flipping whoops and hollers from an elated senior class, the hidden layer beneath reveals a wee bit of queasiness about entering a lousy economy fraught with adult foul-ups, oilspill disasters and uncertainty…

So grads? Josh Shipp’s inspiring rap is a free gift for YOU. (video after the jump—my favorite line is captured above, reflective of every single job experience I’ve ever had in 25+ years, including this one!)

I’ve written about Josh Shipp, the youth advice slingerbefore, so it’s no secret I’m a big fan of ‘Hey Josh.com’ for teens, as he not only taps into the youth zeitgeist brilliantly to create worthy media, motivational speeches and “teen advice on demand” with his online video shows…He even has a division called ‘Hey Josh for Grownups’ so those of us who graduated oh so long ago can hopscotch into teens world to visit some of those “you don’t even know” moments and try to get a clue about what 21st century kids are facing in their worlds.

Josh Shipphas earned accolades like Top 10 Youth Marketing Minds in 2010recently awarded by Mobile Youth,Inc. magazine’s30 under 30, and landed on CNN’s Young People Who Rocksegment about a year ago, opening his personal foster care stories as living life lessons to engage and inspire ALL ages who have ‘been through the fires’ and come out warmer and wiser instead of burned and bitter. So without further ado…“Greetings, class of 2010…”“… MySpace, Twitter followers and Facebook friends–I’ve prepared something that makes sense to use in your journey, know who you are, but own it, cuz you’re worthy.”

Hey, Josh! Your graduation rap is a grad gift for us all…

Got lyrics? More of my faves:

“…You gotta find your own love in life clearly stated. So be who you are, yourself, and no one else, and that’s a favor…Be true now, come on yall thank yourself later, don’t worry ’bout the haters, I never fit in all the time, imagine being in front of the sun and taking all the shine.”

“…Don’t let anyone tell you who you are…’na mean?”

Ahem. Hard for me to even attempt to transcribe rap, without conjuring a ‘white girl slang/overbite dancing’ visual from a parody video of Funny or Die. So I’ll “just stop” as my teen commands me every so often.

p.p.s. CNN Student News complete with the “media literacy question of the day” might be a nice teaching tool, but as far as consumers go, I don’t know many parents OR kids who have ever heard of it. Media like YPWR (and Josh Shipp’s ‘you can either get bitter or better’ life choices) inspire with life lessons far beyond the ‘shoulders and above’ brain-fuel being crammed into youth minds. Just sayin’…